WCCD’s Wallace Sound Student Showchoir to Perform at NYC’s Carnegie Hall

Wallace Sound showchoir members perform at the Spring Showcase in March.

The Wallace Community College-Dothan (WCCD) student showchoir, the Wallace Sound, will take on New York City next week when they perform at the prestigious Carnegie Hall on June 1st, 2024. Twenty students will be showcasing their exceptional talent cultivated within the College’s Fine Arts Division under the direction of choral director Cameron Johnson Weiler. This performance is the first time WCCD’s student showchoir program has been featured on the Carnegie Hall stage.   

The Wallace Sound will be performing jointly with four other choral groups from across the county. The collaborative choirs will premiere a piece called “Song of Hope” written specifically for this performance by composer Terre Johnson, Chair of The Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music at Georgia Southern University. Johnson, who was commissioned to create the piece by MidAmerica Productions, is also Weiler’s father.   

Weiler is so thrilled to bring this talented group of students to the Big Apple. “Singing in Carnegie Hall is a once in a lifetime opportunity for singers, and I am so excited to show off the talented singers of Wallace Community College,” said Weiler. “These students are so hard-working and deserving of this high honor. Many of these students are traveling to New York for the first time, and I cannot wait to share this exciting experience with them. A special bonus will be sharing the stage with my father, the composer of ‘Song of Hope.’ ”  

The students are equally ready to sing on this famous stage. Teagan Nusbaum said, “I am so excited to be a part of such a talented group of people! Everyone brings so much to the table, and we sound great!”  

Elijah Duke said, “I have never flown on a commercial airplane! Being able to fly and to New York of all places is a great privilege for me to have.”  

The singers have been learning this material during their performance season and have been in “high gear” since the end of the spring production of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” “Song of Hope” highlights the perspective of young students and what their experience has been like in the last five years. This educational piece has given a voice to the students who will perform it and will hopefully offer peace to those who will hear it.  

Tickets for this event are available at Carnegiehall.org. This amazing trip was made possible thanks to generous funding from the Wallace Community College Foundation and student-led fundraisers.